Chapter 37: A Win-Win How is this not winning twice over?

"You, you..." Weisheng Luo was so shocked that he could barely string a coherent sentence together. "When did you recover?"

Sijin smiled faintly. "I have not recovered. I am merely able to use a sliver of my power."

He stepped forward slowly. Countless birds circled around him, singing a melodic tune. Their tiny wings shimmered with halos of light, transforming the surrounding ruins into a fairyland.

Yu Lizhi let out a long sigh. As memories of the past flooded back, his expression became incredibly complex. "So, you... you were never sick at all."

Sijin lifted his eyes, feigning surprise, and smiled. "Who says so? Does a sickness of the heart not count as a sickness? However, this is the end of the line. Sijin bids you all a safe journey."

He extended a finger and tapped out a rhythm. The birds around him, as if seeing something they adored, began to chirp in high-pitched tones. Their chaotic cries coalesced into a strange, layered harmony. Wherever the sound traveled, other birds joined in. For a moment, a warm, melodious chorus resonated across the sky, freezing the very shockwaves of the ongoing battle.

Amidst the clear, soaring song, the three men felt everything before them blur. Their eyes, ears, bodies, and minds—everything they perceived shifted with their thoughts. Heaven and earth seemed to invert; they could no longer distinguish between illusion and reality.

The two assistants’ faces twisted in terror.

"It is the 'Sacrificial Soul-Ritual'!"

"We cannot let him continue singing!"

"Wizard Yu, strike now!"

"If you don't act, we will all die here!"

They covered their ears in panic, trembling, using every shamanic artifact at their disposal in a desperate attempt to buy a few more breaths of life.

But their leader merely gazed at Sijin, eventually shaking his head in weary resignation. "It is useless. Do not bother."

With a look of nostalgia, he slowly lowered his weapon and knelt on the ground. Just as in the past, he listened quietly. He had so much he wanted to say—to speak of his ideals, to explain that the sacrifices were never his true intent. He only wanted to preserve those with useful talents; he only wanted to secure the rights that wizards deserved. They protected the weak, and it was only natural for the weak to repay them with their lives, rather than the current state of affairs where they were forced to make endless concessions.

If wizards did not even have the right to kill to establish their authority, how could they consider themselves superior or believe in the uniqueness of their own existence?

A powerful "ego" was the only true path to opening the gates of the Heavenly Wizard!

And then, there was his child.

He only wanted to save his child. It was true that his child had killed a few too many weaklings in his rage after failing the Great Selection and losing his composure, but a reprimand would have sufficed. Why demand a life for a life?

Could his years of service not outweigh the lives of those mortals?

He believed that if wizards could act more freely, their states of mind would improve, making it easier for them to ascend. Only with more powerful wizards could more mortals be protected.

The Wizard Kingdom should not be what it had become.

He felt they should have been more radical, rather than bowing down for the sake of so many ordinary lives.

He did not hate mortals, but why could those mortals not serve as resources? He knew, Deputy Lord, how many warriors had died because of a lack of resources...

His eyelids closed peacefully. He dreamt that he had become a Heavenly Wizard, rebuilding the Di Kingdom—a land where wizards reigned supreme. It attracted countless powerful mages, and the Di Kingdom prospered, becoming just as powerful as the Wizard Kingdom. Eventually, he purified the Vast Sea, returned the world to a paradise, and became the Savior King...

Soon, the three men lay down peacefully, sinking into the deepest of beautiful dreams, and fell silent forever.

"Why use the Soul-Ritual?" Weisheng Wu complained indignantly. "Why do they deserve such a peaceful death? You should have used 'Molten Gold,' 'Heavenly Water,' or 'Starfall'—those nightmare melodies."

"That wouldn't do," Sijin said nonchalantly. "Those songs are for dealing with ghouls and Great Calamities. As for humans, I am still willing to grant them a dignified end. By the way, your father's body is over there. Aren't you going to tidy it up?"

"Tidy it up? Not spitting on it is already an act of filial piety," Weisheng Wu retorted. Then, he couldn't help but ask, "Are you truly not sick? Why couldn't so many Great Physicians, or even the Azure Emperor, cure you?"

Lin Zhao chuckled. "Silly, you don't understand. No one can cure someone who is pretending to be sick."

Sijin calmly refuted this. "How is this pretending? Should I be like my older brother, acting like a donkey? The Wizard Kingdom tells him to go somewhere, and he strikes, regardless of whether he can win or hold the ground. Ha! That is what being sick looks like, and it’s incurable!"

"Ah," Weisheng Wu was stunned by this display of sibling affection. "What are you talking about? The Lord of the Di Kingdom is a hero ranked in the top three among Heavenly Wizards. Do you not know why he spends every year running around as a lackey for Heavenly Wizards far inferior to him? How can you bear to watch your brother work himself to the bone, selling his blood and liver just to farm and save you?"

"It’s not that I don't feel for him," Sijin said indifferently. "When he’s busy with other matters, he won't think about pacifying the Vast Sea, won't think about aiding other vassal states, and won't roll on the ground begging me to help him mobilize troops. You don't know the cost of living until you run a household. Since I am 'sick,' no matter how difficult things get, he will always find a way to get money from the other side."

Weisheng Wu was full of retorts, but as he pointed at Sijin, he found he didn't know where to start.

Sijin leaned over lightly, picked up the crystal-like Key of Spirituality, and hummed a few notes. Countless specks of light—the souls—rose from the key, flew into the ground, and vanished.

Lin Zhao, however, was not so easily dismissed. He couldn't help but say, "You deliberately lured Yu Lizhi into committing evil so you could obtain this to extend the Di Kingdom Lord's life. Now that your goal is achieved, your own hands remain clean, and your brother won't be able to blame you, right?"

Sijin immediately distanced himself. "Wasn't this your doing? In my original plan, Bo Ren would not have died so quickly. I would have killed him at the moment of his final sacrifice and used their reversal ritual to isolate the corrosion of that 'Source.' While there would have been losses, it wouldn't have reached the point of destroying the entire Di Kingdom."

"But you and that stupid tree killed Bo Ren without authorization, triggering the 'Source' prematurely and causing the disturbance that brought the Black Tortoise Divine Remains. My many methods couldn't be deployed in time, and the traitors and Source-ghosts I needed for the real sacrifice didn't even gather!"

Sijin looked furious, but as he spoke, his expression softened. He grabbed Lin Zhao’s hand with a look of pity and untied his ropes. "Of course, this is not your fault. You are still young and know nothing. That stupid tree hasn't been seen in seven years, and the moment he returns, he causes such a catastrophe. The Wizard God will surely punish him. Little Jin, you mustn't go with him to the Vast Sea to eat dirt. Stay here, and Brother Jin will surely take good care of you..."

"You just used the entire population of the Di Kingdom as bait that easily?" Lin Zhao couldn't help but ask.

"What else could I do? That was the only way I could think of to minimize the losses," Sijin’s smile gradually faded, and he said gloomily, "Now that things haven't gone according to my plan, is the situation any better?"

His gaze swept across the surrounding ruins, the collapsed towers, the horizon where not a single building remained intact, the giant tree in the distance that had turned half-grey, and his older brother, who had lost almost all his scales and was struggling to entangle the turtle while biting the snake head.

"But you could have killed Bo Ren with a light flick of your finger. Why let them enter the Di Kingdom?" Lin Zhao asked.

"Because I didn't know where he had hidden the 'Source'," Sijin said, his brow weary. "Once the 'Source' is released, it won't just be the Di Kingdom. The Feather Kingdom in the north, the Qigong in the south, and even the Heavenly Barrier of the Wizard Kingdom will... Sigh, it is better for you not to know about these things yet."

Lin Zhao, not knowing the full picture, could not draw easy conclusions and decided to change the focus. "My name is not Little Jin. You can call me Zhao."

"Very well, Little Zhao," Sijin smiled faintly. "Come, let us discuss business."

Lin Zhao nodded, looking worriedly at the battlefield that had been raging for nearly an hour.

"No need to look," Sijin recalled his sky-filling birds and waved his hand to manifest a stone table and chairs. "In a battle between Great Calamities, it only ends when one side falls completely. They still have a long way to go."

...

The three sat around the table. Weisheng Wu was somewhat excited; as a mere apprentice wizard, he actually had the opportunity to sit at a table with a Heavenly Wizard.

"Now, we need to talk," Sijin said to Weisheng Wu. "First, you must keep the fact that I was faking my illness a secret. In return, I will recommend you to become a personal disciple of the Great Wizard Shantu."

Weisheng Wu was stunned by this windfall, freezing in place, unable to think.

Sijin then turned to Lin Zhao with a smile. "Little Zhao, let’s talk."

Lin Zhao said cautiously, "What do you want to do?"

"Naturally, we need to get our stories straight," Sijin said softly. "If my brother knew that he was the reason I was forced to feign illness all these years, suffering the disdain and cold eyes of others, I don't know how heartbroken he would be. So, this time, you were the one who absorbed the corrosion from me, and my illness was cured by you. Do you understand?"

"You really know how to flip black and white. You mean you don't know how furious he would be, right? Why should I help you?" Lin Zhao refused to get involved in someone else's family affairs.

"Is that so? Look at that tree," Sijin pointed to the giant tree in the distance, which was covered in wounds from the Black Tortoise Divine Remains. "In the short time we've been sitting here, you've checked the sundial several times. I suspect he has exceeded the time you agreed upon, hasn't he?"

Lin Zhao looked up and saw the tree lose another massive branch to the turtle's savage bite. He nodded in silent admission.

"If it were in the past, Ji Yaoguang and my brother could certainly have driven the Black Tortoise Divine Remains back, but times have changed. Ji Yaoguang suffered severe injuries before going to the Vast Sea and is struggling just to stay alive; he can't use his full strength. My brother is on the verge of alienation and has to hold back. If they exceed their limits, they will both turn into Great Calamities and join the enemy side," Sijin tempted him. "Do you want me to help him?"

"Why ask when you know the answer? Go ahead, name your conditions, I agree!" Lin Zhao said decisively.

The old tree had been over the time limit by nearly half an hour. He wasn't blind; he could see that he and the snake were both at a disadvantage. If the old tree withdrew now, the snake would likely be finished.

He wasn't the man's spouse, so he wouldn't get upset over petty things like "how could you risk your life for a friend." The most important thing now was to get the old tree out of that trap.

As for the conditions, with the old tree around, he didn't believe Sijin would dare to propose something like "marry me," "three tasks I haven't thought of yet," or "be a slave for a hundred years" to invite his own doom. The old tree might look gentle, but he was quite decisive when it came to killing.

"Very well. However, this will require your help. My spells are also of the support type, mostly used to strengthen our side's combat power, but they don't lack power right now; what they lack is the opportunity to unleash it," Sijin summoned a plump white bird. "Let's go together. I will protect you, and you will absorb their corrosion. Perhaps we can try, under that purple sun, to join forces and slay a Great Calamity."